Paul Ryan’s honeymoon: How long will it last?

According to Gallup, Paul Ryan is enjoying a honeymoon like most new speakers assuming the gavel. How long can the reluctant policy-wonk-turned-House speaker sustain this kind of favorable rating? What the public knows that Ann Coulter doesn’t.

PRINCETON, N.J. — Speaker of the House Paul Ryan begins his term with generally positive ratings from Americans — 42% have a favorable opinion of him and 29% an unfavorable one. His ratings have generally been more positive than negative over the last three years, but Ryan’s current +13 net favorable rating is his best to date.

Here’s the problem.

Ryan among the faithful

The poll finds 67% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of Ryan, while 15% have an unfavorable opinion. Both figures are up by about 10 percentage points from Gallup’s prior reading, taken in July 2014.

Republicans do not view Ryan quite as positively now as they did when he was running for vice president. In late September 2012, his favorable rating was 85% among the party base.

A near 20 point drop might suggest that if the Tea Party wing gets restless, Ryan’s popularity may drop.

The key for Ryan is that he has to appear as a statesman with an eye toward governance and delivering some sort of victory to the Freedom caucus types.